My plans to overdose on football over Christmas were dealt a cruel blow by the remaining snow. I had been looking forward to a traditional Boxing Day visit to Orient and that bit the dust early on. That was a wee frustrating as having decided to cut back on Orient the times I actually want to seem to be cursed. I imagine that Dagenham & Redbridge fans were even more disappointed after having been told that their game was definitely on after a pitch inspection on Christmas Eve. That proved to be an incurable case of optimism or an attack of the stupids. In planning the games I was going see over Christmas I had tried to make sure that I would go to new places and see new teams but in the end there wasn't much choice. I had been to Carshalton for the first time back in September as I rediscovered the charms of non-league football and although I had enjoyed the game against Tunbridge Wells in the FA Cup I hadn't planned on going back any time soon. However once the Tooting-Kingstonian derby was postponed Carshalton's game against Sutton United was the only realistic alternative.